FERNANDEZ LIZARDI, Jos6 Joaquin, Mexican author, born in the City of Mexico in 1771 died there in June 1827. He was graduated in 1787 at the University of Mexico as bachelor, and in 1789 as licentiate. In 1812 he was deputy magistrate of Tasco, Guerrero, and as such delivered to the revolutionary chief Morelos all the arms and ammunition in that place on 1 Jan. In the same year he moved to the City of Mexico, and began to publish the newspaper "E1 Pensador Mexicano " (The Mexican Thinker), under which name Fernandez is now generally known. In this paper he advocated free schools and compulsory education, and one of his articles, in which he censured the decree of the viceroy Venegas depriving the revolutionary priests of the right to be judged in clerical courts, caused his imprisonment for seven months. As soon as he regained his liberty in 1813 he published several articles on the plague, at that time ravaging Mexico, and in the following three years published many reviews, the best of which is called "Alacena de Frioleras" (" The Locker for Trifles "). He also published at this time his most famous work, "Periquillo Sarniento" (1816" new ed., illustrated, 2 vols., Mexico, 1884), a collection of fables (1817), and "La Quijotita and Ratos Entretenidos" (1819). After the Spanish constitution was reestablished in Mexico, Fernandez published several pamphlets, one of which, a dialogue between Chamorro and Dominiquin, caused his imprisonment for the second time. In the next year he published a paper called "E1 Conductor E16etrico," and a series of articles, " Conversaciones del Payo y el Sacristan. His defenee of the freemasons (1822) caused his excommunication, but, undaunted by the prosecution of the clergy and reactionary party, he published a second defenee, his "Cartas del Pensador al Papista," and "Defensa del Pensador dirigida al Provisor," and "Ataque al Castillo de Ulfia," and a politicalmoral paper called "El hermano del Penco" (1828). He had to suffer many prosecutions, and often to struggle with poverty, but the lower classes adored him and shared their bread with him. He also published two novels, "Noches Tristes y Dia Alegre" (1828), and " Vida y Hechos del Famoso Caballero Don Catrin de la Fachenda " (Mexico, 1882).